This last defeat bore so harshly on the master of Belles Demoiselles,
that the daughters, reading chagrin in his face, began to repent. They
loved their father as daughters can, and when they saw their pretended
dejection harassing him seriously they restrained their complaints,
displayed more than ordinary tenderness, and heroically and
ostentatiously concluded there was no place like Belles Demoiselles. But
the new mood touched him more than the old, and only refined his
discontent. Here was a man, rich without the care of riches, free from
any real trouble, happiness as native to his house as perfume to his
garden, deliberately, as it were with premeditated malice, taking joy by
the shoulder and bidding her be gone to town, whither he might easily
have followed, only that the very same ancestral nonsense that kept
Injin Charlie from selling the old place for twice its value prevented
him from choosing any other spot for a city home.
But by and by the charm of nature and the merry hearts around him
prevailed; the fit of exalted sulks passed off, and after a while the
year flared up at Christmas, flickered, and went out.
Pages:
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168